Thursday, March 2, 2017

William F. Buckley said George W. Bush Iraq war failure if committed by a European PM would've caused his or her resignation. Buckley rejected neocon interventionist foreign policy, said Bush single problem is lack of conservative ideology-CBS News, 7/22/2006

Asked if the Bush administration has been distracted by Iraq, Buckley
says "I think it has been engulfed by Iraq, by which I mean no other
subject interests anybody other than Iraq... The continued tumult in
Iraq has overwhelmed what perspectives one might otherwise have
entertained with respect to, well, other parts of the Middle East with
respect to Iran in particular."

"If we find there is a
warhead there that is poised, the range of it is tested, then we have no
alternative. But pending that, we have to ask ourselves, 'What would
the Iranian population do?'"

Buckley does support the
administration's approach to the North Korea's nuclear weapons threat,
believing that working with Russia, China, Japan and South Korea is the
best way to get Pyongyang back to the negotiating table. But that's
about where the agreement ends....

Asked what President Bush's
foreign policy legacy will be to his successor,Buckley says "There will
be no legacy for Mr. Bush. I don't believe his successor would
re-enunciate the words he used in his second inaugural address because
they were too ambitious. So therefore I think his legacy is
indecipherable"

"At 81, Mr. Buckley still continues to contribute a regular column to the National Review, the magazine he started 51 years ago."